1. Field
Example embodiments relate to a memory management method that is related to a computing system having a hierarchical memory structure, and more particularly, to a memory management method that increases an efficiency of a task backup or a task restoration between an internal memory and an external memory in the hierarchical memory structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a computer system may have a hierarchical memory arrangement structure.
In the hierarchical memory arrangement structure, a memory that is close to a processor, such as a register, a cache, and the like, may have a high access speed. Such memory may be relatively expensive, and may have a small capacity. The memory may be arranged inside the processor, and may be referred to as an internal memory.
A memory that is physically located outside of the processor, such as a random access memory (RAM) i.e., a main memory, may have a relatively low access speed. However, such memory is relatively inexpensive and may have a relatively large capacity. The large capacity memory may be arranged outside the processor, and may be referred to as an external memory.
In the computing system having the hierarchical memory arrangement structure, as a size of the internal memory is increased and utilized, a calculation speed may increase, however, a cost for the system may also increase. Accordingly, there is a desire for a method of effectively using the relatively small internal memory.
Recently, an embedded system includes a scratch pad memory inside the processor to process data, and the scratch pad memory is an internal memory having a high operational speed.
To effectively use the scratch pad memory, embedded systems may use an overlay scheme that may apply the scratch pad memory to a plurality of tasks, as opposed to using a virtual memory scheme that may use a portion of the external memory together with the internal memory.